"He's dumping raw sewage into our sewer lines. That can't be acceptable," said Jennifer McKeon, a Knickerbocker Avenue resident and president of the Springdale Neighborhood Association. "We live in a beautiful neighborhood. We're a close-knit community and it smells like sewage."

McKeon and her neighbors told WPCA board members they are convinced the company is illegally dumping the sewage it collects from its customers down a drainage pipe in its garage on Knickerbocker Avenue, causing odor and sewage backups.

Stamford police investigated the charges of illegal dumping and found probable cause for an arrest.

Police Chief Jon Fontneau said the department put together an arrest warrant about a month ago.

"We have prepared and submitted an arrest warrant to the court," Fontneau said. "We felt there was probable cause for an arrest. But it's now in the hands of the court."

State's Attorney David Cohen said he sent the arrest warrant request back to police.

Aillery said he has not been approached by the police. He said he bought Stright Sewage Disposal Company in 1987, but the company has been headquartered on Knickerbocker Avenue since 1921 and was grandfathered into zoning laws.

Knickerbocker Avenue resident Phyllis Pugliesi said the smell was so bad two summers ago that she went over to complain to Aillery who lives on the property with his family.

"I smelled it just horrendously one day when I was home during the week," Pugliesi said. "I walked over to the building and knocked on the door, which is part of the garage."

Pugliesi told WPCA board members Aillery's son let her into the garage where the company's sewage disposal equipment is kept, and she saw a hose from one of the trucks feeding into a drain in the garage floor.

"It was a hose coming out of the truck right into the hole in the ground," Pugliesi said. "I actually saw it and I volunteered to speak in a court of law if I need to."

Aillery appeared and ushered Pugliesi outside, she said.

"I said, `Bob. The smell of poop is all over this neighborhood. It's disgusting," Pugliesi said.

Reached by phone earlier this month, Aillery denied dumping sewage down the drain in his garage. He remembered Pugliesi's visit, but said the street did not smell when he went outside with her.

"We're a sewage company," he said. "The trucks smell. One time one person asked me to smell the street and I said there was no smell and she admitted there was no smell."

Aillery said the drainage pipe in his basement does connect to the city sewer line, but that it's not large enough to handle the 4,000 pounds of sewage he carries in his septic truck.

"What they're saying is not even possible," he said. "The plumbing was all done in 1992. All inspected, all overseen and approved by every city agency."

WPCA officials have been investigating the Knickerbocker Avenue residents' allegations for three years, however, and agree that Stright is illegally dumping.

"We monitored flows in that line," WPCA Executive Director Bill Brink told the board of directors. "We've taken samples. We felt confident that they were, in fact, discharging septic into this line."

In April, WPCA Regulatory Compliance Officer Stephen W. Pietrzyk sent a letter to Aillery informing him that his "ongoing practices of discharging septage" violated city law. Pietrzyk instructed Aillery to immediately stop dumping sewage down the floor drain in his garage.

The WPCA official also ordered Aillery to fill the 8-inch-wide floor drain in his garage with concrete under the supervision of a city building, health or WPCA representative.

Aillery, who said the floor drain pipe in his garage is only 4 inches wide, did not comply with the order. After two weeks, WPCA officials began imposing fines of $90 a day.

"Stright Sewage Company has not paid any of the fines," Brink told the WPCA board last month. "They continued dumping, as far as we can tell."

By mid-May, Stright's balance of unpaid fines had reached $630, and the WPCA sent Aillery another letter telling him he could no longer dispose of his company's sewage at Stamford's wastewater treatment plant on Harbor View Avenue. Sewage disposal companies pay weight-based tipping fees, much like garbage haulers, when they empty their trucks at wastewater treatment facilities.

"There are many dumps all over Fairfield County," Aillery said in response. "They aren't the only game in town."

Aillery said sealing the drainage pipe in his garage would disrupt his house's plumbing, a claim WPCA officials refute. The sewage disposal company owner said he has no plans to pay the fees levied against him by the WPCA, which now total more than $23,000.

"They know those fines were not legally done," he said. "You have to give people a hearing in order to make them legal."

Knickerbocker Avenue residents said it is not just the smell that is causing problems. They blame illegal dumping by Aillery's company for chronic sewer line blockages in the neighborhood. The most dramatic example of such a blockage occurred at Dorothy Jatzen's house in 2010. She described the incident to the WPCA board of directors last month.

"I went to get something from the basement, and as I got to the bottom of the stairs I started screaming at the top of my lungs because there was sewage spewing out of the washing machine hose onto the washer and dryer and everything in the vicinity as well as all over the floor," Jatzen told WPCA board members. "We already had about an inch of sewage on the floor."

Jatzen said she called the WPCA officials, who advised her to throw out her washer and dryer, since they were contaminated by raw sewage, and hire professional cleaners. The WPCA reimbursed her for the $3,200 bill.

The incident sparked the WPCA's investigation of Aillery, but Jatzen said she is frustrated that nothing has been done to stop his alleged dumping.

"No department seems to want to take this on and help our cause," she said. "We're tired of smelling poop in our neighborhood and tired of Bob just doing what he wants to do without any repercussions."

Aillery and his family live in a house on the property, which is about a third of an acre. In the 1990s he built an attached commercial garage, which houses his septic trucks and other equipment.

Dorothy Loften, who lives on Knickerbocker Avenue south of Aillery's property, said she used to smell an odor in the neighborhood years ago, but hasn't recently.

"In the spring, summer and fall I'm out in my yard most of the time," Loften said. "I'm gardening and puttering around the yard and I really haven't had any sense of any sewage odor at all. They're good neighbors, the Aillerys who own Stright, and they really try to prevent any problems."

Pietrzyk, the WPCA's regulatory compliance officer, told board members the city's health department has complaints about Aillery's company dating back to the 1990s.

"It's obviously had a dramatic impact on the residential community," he said. "People are unable to sell their homes at open houses or sit in their yards having barbeques or picnics."

WPCA officials asked the board of directors to consider taking legal action against Stright Sewage Disposal Company. The board entered executive session to discuss the issue at its Dec. 5 meeting, but did not take any action.

On Thursday, WPCA Board of Directors Chairman Michael Handler said board members have been working with the police and Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection to resolve the issue.

"The board of directors is committed to pursuing all available remedies to rectify this situation and will continue to coordinate with all applicable local, state and federal agencies," he said.

CT DEEP Spokesman Dennis Schain confirmed state environmental authorities have been involved in the investigation.

"In the course of our enforcement activity we certainly have visited Stright Sewage and evaluated conditions and practices there," Schain said in an email. "DEEP is working closely with city officials and law enforcement authorities to identify the source of this problem and take appropriate action. This is a very disturbing and unsatisfactory situation for neighborhood residents and we want to resolve it as quickly as possible."